News and Events of 1976

 

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.158 billion
population by decade

Nobel Peace Prize:
Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams (both Northern Ireland)

 

• Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot becomes prime minister (and virtual dictator) of Cambodia after Prince Sihanouk steps down (April 2).
• Israeli airborne commandos attack Uganda's Entebbe Airport and free 103 hostages held by pro-Palestinian hijackers of Air France plane; one Israeli and several Ugandan soldiers killed in raid (July 4).
• 19-month civil war ends in Lebanon after threatening to escalate to global level (Nov.).

 

U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

President: Gerald R. Ford
Vice President: Nelson A. Rockefeller
Population: 218,035,164
Life expectancy: 72.9 years
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 52.9
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000): 48.2
 
 

• US Supreme Court rules that blacks and other minorities are entitled to retroactive job seniority (March 24).
• Ford signs Federal Election Campaign Act (May 11).
• US Supreme Court rules that death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment (July 3).
• Nation celebrates Bicentennial (July 4).
• Mysterious disease strikes American Legion convention in Philadelphia, eventually claiming 29 lives (Aug. 4).
• Jimmy Carter elected US President (Nov. 2).

 

Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars):   $1,819.00 billion
Federal spending:   $371.79 billion
Federal debt:   $629.0 billion
Median Household Income
(current dollars):  $12,686
Consumer Price Index:   56.9
Unemployment:   7.7%
Cost of a first-class stamp:   $0.13

Sports

Super Bowl

Pittsburgh d. Dallas (21-17)

World Series

Cincinnati d. NY Yankees (4-0)

NBA Championship

Boston d. Phoenix (4-2)

Stanley Cup

Montreal d. Philadelphia (4-0)

Wimbledon

Women: Chris Evert d. E. Cawley (6-3 4-6 8-6)
Men: Bjorn Borg d. I. Nastase (6-4 6-2 9-7)

Kentucky Derby Champion

Bold Forbes

NCAA Basketball Championship

Indiana d. Michigan (86-68)

NCAA Football Champions

Pittsburgh (12-0-0)

 

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow
Music: Air Music, Ned Rorem
Drama: A Chorus Line, Conceived by Michael Bennett

 

Oscars awarded in 1976
Academy Award, Best Picture: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas, producers (United Artists)

 

Nobel Prize for Literature: Saul Bellow (US)

 

Grammys awarded in 1976
Record of the Year: "Love Will Keep Us Together," Captain and Tennille
Album of the Year: Still Crazy After All These Years, Paul Simon (Columbia)
Song of the Year: "Send in the Clowns," Stephen Sondheim, songwriter

 

Miss America: Tawney Elaine Godin (NY)

 

 

 

Events

• The Steadicam is used for the first time in Rocky.
• Philip Glass completes Einstein on the Beach, the first widely known example of minimalist composition.
• NBC broadcasts Gone with the Wind and scores record-breaking ratings.

 

Movies

 

• Rocky, Taxi Driver, Network, All the President's Men

 

Music

 

• Philip Glass Einstein on the Beach,

 

Books

 

• Raymond Carver, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
• Judith Guest, Ordinary People
• Alex Haley, Roots
• Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
• Robert Lowell, Selected Poems
• Gabriel García Márquez, Autumn of the Patriarch
• Gore Vidal, 1876

 

Science

 

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: William N. Lipscomb, Jr. (US), for work on the structure and bonding mechanisms of boranes

Physics: Burton Richter and Samuel C. C. Ting (both US), for discovery of subatomic particles known as J and psi

Physiology or Medicine: Baruch S. Blumberg and D. Carleton Gajdusek (both US), for discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases

 

• Air France and British Airways begin the first regularly scheduled commercial supersonic transport (SST) flights. Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
• Viking I lands on Mars. Background: US Unstaffed Planetary and Lunar Programs
• The US Navy tests the Tomahawk cruise missile.
• Richard Leakey discovers a 1.5 million year old Homo erectus skull in Kenya. Background: human evolution
• Cosmic string theory first postulated by Thomas Kibble. Background: Astronomy

 

Deaths

 

Agatha Christie

Andre Malraux